


Breaking Point

by sowell



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-26
Updated: 2013-05-26
Packaged: 2017-12-13 00:10:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sowell/pseuds/sowell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Veronica's filled-in POV from one of the scenes in 3.05. Reflection-heavy, dialogue-light.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breaking Point

Veronica wondered whether she should feel this tired. Normally, solving a case was…exhilarating. Exhausting, sure. But it was the clean, bubbly exhaustion that came from finishing a workout, or finally passing in a grueling assignment, from secret stolen kisses and staying out all night. But this. This was different. Maybe it was because she could still see the security guard’s daughter across the street, golden and blonde and far too reminiscent for comfort. Maybe it was the knowledge that even bringing the thieves to justice hadn’t brought back her last tangible piece of Lilly. Maybe it was the fact that, no matter how many petty thieves she busted, she still wasn’t a single step closer to finding the rapist terrorizing her campus.

Or maybe it was just consenting to work with  _Lamb_  that brought on this veil of jaded exhaustion; the entire Neptune Sheriff’s department probably walked around feeling like this every day. ( _Is there someone you’d like me to arrest, or should I just round up the sons of the most influential families in town?_ ) She suddenly had a great deal more respect for poor Sacks.

The girl was approaching. Chubby arms swinging, face screwed up in a furious scowl, shouting things that could only be hurtful coming from a six-year-old’s mouth. Pure, righteous anger. No shades of gray there. ( _I guess I didn’t feel I was even a little bit wrong, or sorry._ ) No matter that her father was a thief and a liar and had ripped the last piece of Veronica’s dead best friend off her neck like it meant nothing at all. Veronica was the enemy here, clearly.

"You stupid cow!" she yelled, practically foaming at the mouth with all the vehemence her six-year-old brain could muster. ( _Look at this...she cries._ )Veronica wanted to slap her. Then she saw the necklace.

The thing had appeared around Lilly’s lily-white neck just days before her sixteenth birthday. It hadn’t come from Logan. Veronica remembered being jealous at the time, jealous of how fabulous it looked on her best friend, of how it lit her from head to toe. The stone made her eyes flash like polished pennies, the setting picked up the moon-silver tint in her hair. And the secret of its origin made her friend’s mouth curl in a slow, perfect arch. ( _I’ve got a secret – a good one._ ) A gorgeous, shining princess, all dressed up in diamonds and precious metal, a living fairytale.

A dead fairytale.

It didn’t do any of those things for Veronica. It looked like a lovely necklace framing a pretty face, and that was the end of it. But sometimes, once or twice in the secret shadows of her room, she thought she could look in the mirror and see a little of Lilly on herself, a little Lilly-glitter rubbing off from the silver chain sliding against her skin.

And now it was around this grubby little girl’s neck, this stupid, mouthy little thing, whose hair didn’t have a silver sheen and whose eyes were nothing like scattered coins and who didn’t have a secretive bone in her body.

She thought of all the things she could say to this girl. Grow up, kid. What goes around comes around. Sooner or later, the people you love let you down.

But in the end, she could only pass on the lesson the girl’s father had already taught her that week.

Veronica… it’s not easy…  
I know it’s not.

Sterling silver breaks in one sharp snap, and it leaves a burn in its wake.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo....I was really, REALLY fascinated by the scene when Veronica rips the necklace off the little girl's neck in 3.05. Despite the rather anvilicious parellels they were making between Veronica and the little pre-Veronica, I thought KB was pretty amazing in that scene, and there were lots of great layers emotion to play with. I haven't really stopped thinking about it all day. Thus, fic. Also, you'll notice I titled it after Aaron's movie. Cheesy and lame? Probably. Entirely necessary? OH, I THINK SO.


End file.
